DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As I watch the world of print journalism implode, I've taken comfort in knowing that at the level of the business that I inhabit, the end would be years away.

The metro dailies are dying because of the Internet. In my corner
of Vermont, most of my readers don't or won't go online for local news. If
you want to know what happened, you have to read it in a newspaper.

The tv stations only come around here when there is a murder or
some other huge, transcendent event. Radio isn't much of a factor either.
Wireless Internet and cell signals are spotty at best and nonexistent at
worst. Craigslist hasn't yet set up shop, and you still need to take out a
want ad if you are trying to sell something.

But the sheltered little world of small town newspapering in
northern New England got thrown for a loop last week with the news that
the Claremont (N.H.) Eagle Times was going out of business.

I worked nearly six years for the Eagle Times, first as a
sports writer, then as a news editor and briefly at the end as managing
editor. I still was friendly with some of the people I had worked with. In
my current role as day editor and editorial writer at the
Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer, they were my competition.

The Eagle had its share of problems. It was surrounded on
all sides by stronger papers and its core readership area has struggled
economically for years. Staff turnover was high and maintaining quality
and continuity was a constant struggle. But what the Eagle had going for
it was three strong weekly papers, local ownership and a commitment to
local news.

I had been under the impression that the Eagle was still
viable, even in the midst of the worst collapse for advertising since the
Great Depression. I was wrong. The owner and publisher, Harvey Hill, said
he put more than $1 million of his own money over the past year or so into
the newspapers to keep them going. He had quietly shopped them around, and
found no takers. He said he had no choice but to declare Chapter 7
bankruptcy.

The news of the Eagle's closing came swiftly. At about 3:30
p.m. on July 9, an e-mail went out informing staffers that the company was
closing for good as of 5 that afternoon. There was absolutely no warning,
not even time to prepare a proper farewell edition. Sixty-six full-timers
and 29 part-timers were out of work in the blink of an eye.

We at the Reformer heard about the Eagle's demise
not long after the Eagle's employees heard about it, and were floored by
the news. And the shock gave way to the gnawing feeling that while we were
still alive, we could easily be next. While the Reformer for now is
moderately in the black, thanks to aggressive cost cutting and staff
reductions, our corporate master MediaNews Group is struggling to make the
payments on about $800 million of debt. MNG could easily slip into Chapter
11 if the economy doesn't improve.

The shock and disbelief was also felt by the Eagle's 8,000
subscribers. Suddenly, the routine of reading about their town and their
neighbors every day was ripped away and a gaping hole in the civic fabric
of Claremont and the towns that surround it was all that remained.

It's not just the coverage of town government, local sports or the
police log that disappeared with the Eagle. It was also the church
suppers, the weddings and engagements, the births and the obituaries, the
Saturday tag sale listings and the school honor roll - all the little
things that are what people pick up newspapers for - that disappeared too.

Local, small town newspapers like the Eagle Times and the
Reformer provide the glue that keeps a community together. The
Internet evangelists say that newspapers are no longer essential, and that
people can get their news from the Web or from social networks like
Twitter and Facebook. Sure, if you live in an urban area with high-speed
Internet, robust wireless networks and lots of talented people willing to
work for next to nothing in the hope of being the next big thing online.

In the world where I help put out a paper each day, there are
thousands of readers who have never seen the Reformer's Website.
We still get handwritten letters to the editor and community news briefs.
We get tons of phone calls if the crossword puzzle solution is missing. We
get angry phone calls when the paper isn't delivered. To tell these
people that they can go online and read their local newspaper is the
equivalent of telling them to go away because we can't be bothered with
you unless you have a computer.

Newspapers aren't dead yet, but the Claremont Eagle Times'
demise was a painful reminder that even a loyal readership isn't enough to
ensure survival in the worst economic conditions in decades. Even in a
relatively sheltered place, where the bigger, faster, more ethos of the
online world still seems far away, no newspaper is safe.

Randolph T. Holhut has been a journalist in New England for nearly 30
years. He edited "The George Seldes Reader" (Barricade Books). He can be
reached at randyholhut@yahoo.com. For extra added thrills, read his
ongoing daily blog on The Harvard Classics at
http://hclassics15.blogspot.com.